What You Make of It

I knew the odds were against it. 70% against, according to Weather Underground… Since it’d been raining on and off all week, I knew two things: being cooped up was not working out for us, and if I didn’t stretch my legs and take out the BOB for a spin, I was going to be a cranky camper.

70% chance… but only at some point in the day… I didn’t want to kick myself when, at day’s end, I’d squandered hours of possible outside time. When that dang witching hour was upon us all, and no one was feeling right because of a profound deficiency of outside time.

What the heck? We’re not made of sugar, and I have the rain fly for the BOB. I’m going to just make this happen, ill advised as it may be.

I loaded all the stuff we might need and pushed the boys to drop Carter off at school, then play in the adjacent park with Cole.

The walk there was pretty nice – blue sky and puffy clouds. Birds chirped. Moods were high.

Drop off went fine. Then, as we latched the gate to exit the play area, I felt it. Yep, it was starting to rain. Now, this has been a weird spring, and all that week we’d had short showers. No biggie, I decided. We’ll find cover and wait it out if need be.

Shockingly, we had the run of the playground after about one minute. Other moms swooped their kids away, and it was utterly quiet.

Except for the pattering noise, and this guy.

I climbed up to a covered area on the play structure, while Cole had a blast. It was a light sprinkle.

Then, all of a sudden, the sprinkle became, oh.. a DOWNPOUR.

C’mon Dude. Let’s have a picnic over there. I gestured to a bit of a shelter.

It was pretty pleasant! Quiet patter-patter, and some wonderful company.

And look: it was a bone fide picnic!

See? Ant! Proof of a picnic by anyone’s rules, I say.

Eventually we nibbled away all our snacks, yet the rain refused to move on. In fact, it began to monsoon. Cole was beginning to look a little droopy-eyed, so I loaded him up, snug and dry(ish) into the BOB under the rain fly.

It’s been a good while since he was in there like that, and he didn’t like it at first. However, I explained that he had to let it be to stay dry, and he only kicked the edge by his toes undone a few times before he realized I was not budging on this matter.

I pushed him a couple of miles that way, figuring I may as well make use of my waterproof shell and enjoy what outside time we could get—though I s’pose Cole was technically inside. :)

When it was close enough to dismissal time, we went back to preschool, changed Cole into dry duds, and hung out for a while painting and poaching some of their snack. They’re so nice to accommodate Cole that way. He felt like such a big kid with his plate and cup!

Wouldn’t you know it? The sky was back to blue by the time Carter’s class was over. We all layered down, and the rain fly was stowed… and both the boys were lulled to sleep.

Sometimes you just have to go ahead and give things a go, even when the odds are not in your favor. You might have a pretty good time. Just pack that rain fly—in case. :)